T20 World Cup 2022: Reserve days in place for semi-finals and final

The T20 World Cup 2022 is set to kickstart on Sunday (October 16) and the teams will have their tasks cut out for the mega event. Over the years, Rain has played spoilsport in the tournament a number of times in crucial days and it is very important to prepare for it earlier. The T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia will have reserve days for both semi-finals and the finals of the edition

As many as 16 teams have made it to the T20 World Cup 2022 and the top ranked eight teams have directly qualified for the Super 12 stages through the ICC ranking system. The remaining eight teams will play the qualifiers in the First Round and top two teams from two groups of the qualifiers will progress into the next round.

With the total of 12 teams divided into two groups for Round Two, the top two nations from each group will make the semi-finals and from there-on to the finals. 

The match referee and the officials will make all efforts to play a shortened game on the originally scheduled day for the semi-finals or the finals. However, when the possibility of a five-over game is taken out, the reserve days come into play. Also, if the match starts on the scheduled day and rain had interrupted, the play will resume from where they left off on the reserve day.

Reserve day drama in ICC 2019 World Cup

The reserve day for the ICC tournament has been used previously and the 50-Over World Cup in 2019 semi-final was a great example of how it works. The semi-final between India and New Zealand had to be shifted to the reserve day after it rained heavily in Manchester on the scheduled day. It looked like India were cruising with the game after restricting New Zealand to 239 for 8.  

However, when India came out to bat on the reserve day, the conditions were quite tough for the batters and the ball swung around largely in the overcast conditions. The Kiwis won the game by 18 runs and more interesting reserve games could be on the cards this time around in Australia.